"Hardline Muslims known as Salafis oppose the veneration of saints, a long-standing North African tradition, saying it undermines the Islamic belief in monotheism," the AP reported.

Earlier this year, the radical group Ansar Dine destroyed the mausoleums of Sufi saints in Timbuktu, prompting the U.N. Security Council to adopt a resolution that threatened sanctions on rebel fighters and decried the vandalism of cultural sites.

A recent report by Washington Post foreign correspondents detailed the rise of the Salafists following the Arab Spring. As moderate Islamist leaders have taken office in countries such as Egypt and Tunisia, "the Salafists are pushing — sometimes at the ballot box, sometimes at the point of a gun — to create societies that more closely mirror their ultraconservative religious beliefs and lifestyles."

“They say that the people do not want sharia,” Gamel Saber, a back-slapping Salafist activist who said he dreams of a day when his country’s courts will fully implement Islamic law, told The Post. “But that is not true. They are ready.”